


From Here

by stripped_to_glimpses



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Frostiron Bang 2015, Gen, Loki-centric, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Thor: The Dark World, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 16:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5135237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stripped_to_glimpses/pseuds/stripped_to_glimpses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Thor returns to Asgard, he finds the king missing; entirely unrelatedly, Tony finds himself with an unexpected visitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Here

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thanks to the awesome fiendish for the wonderful art! Also found here: http://fiendish-arts.tumblr.com/post/132463281081/so-i-did-a-thing-guys-specifically-a-thing-for

Heimdall approached the throne.

“Gatekeeper, what brings you from your post?” The king raised his head. In one hand he held Gungnir. In the other, a small object, a paperweight or an hourglass, that he spun over and over, a new habit.

“Your highness, there is news from Midgard. Thor and his allies face a new threat. A mechanical man, created by the Man of Iron, who means to save the people of Midgard by destroying them. But this I not why I have come to you. There is a woman, working with this creature, who uses siedr, or something like it, to influence the minds of others; in what way, I do not know. Her meeting with Thor spurred him to action, and he sought the Norns. Whatever they showed him, he returned speaking of a threat to all the realms.”

“This machine man?”

“I do not believe so. Thor and his allies were victorious, but Thor still speaks of the threat. He has indicated his intention to return to Asgard to seek insight, once his duties on Midgard allow.”

A brief pause.

“I see.”

The king turn the object in his hand over once, twice.

“He will be most welcome. It will be good to see him again. We will offer what knowledge and wisdom we possess. That will be all.”

With a nod, and a thoughtful look, Heimdall turned and left the hall.

 

***

 

Thor bid farewell to Steve and Tony and called for Heimdall and the Bifrost. Blinding light, the rush of unimaginable speeds, and the familiar golden dome around him. Home.

“Heimdall. It is good to see you again.”

“And you as well, my prince,” Heimdall replied with the slightest inclination of his head as he returned the great sword to its resting position and the dome slowed its rotation.

“How fares the realm eternal?”

“Well enough. There has been much to do.”

“And my father? How does he seem?”

“Busy restoring what can be repaired. I have been more occupied in recent days than I have been in a long while. Odin sends his representatives to the farthest reaches of the nine realms. Sif has been to Midgard twice.” Thor looked at him in surprise. “She has been busy. I am sure she would have told you were she able. Whatever the purpose of these errands, the king keeps his own counsel. But I would not be surprised to find that he is able to provide some of the answers you seek.”

“I hope you are right, Heimdall. If there is anyone who knows what we face, it is Father.”

But when Thor arrived at the palace, he found the throne empty, Gungnir lying on the floor beside it.

 

***

 

Tony rolled out from under the car and reached for a greasy rag.

“You still owe me that drink.”

Tony's heart clenched in his chest. He stayed very still. No one was there. It was just too quiet in the garage. How did he forget the music? Slowly, he turned around to see a familiar figure lounging against a hood maybe 15 feet away.

“Yeah, those offers have an expiration date. No longer valid once the other party is dead. You're dead, right? You were supposed to be dead.”

Loki just arched an eyebrow at him. The guy really was an expert at the “I'm surrounded by idiots look.” He didn't in fact, look particularly dead. New clothes. Still the same armor-as-everyday-wear thing those Asgardians seemed to love, but a bit less invading-alien-warlord than the last time. Longer hair, with less resemblance to a porcupine. Looked like he'd eaten and slept, possibly even recently. Definitely not dead. Probably. And in his workshop. In Malibu.

Tony shrugged. He stood, dropping the rag, and jerked his head, leading the way up the stairs to the living room. Either Loki would follow, disappear, or kill him. Whichever it was, a drink would help. He grabbed two glasses, the second-best scotch—because fuck you, alien assholes don't get the best—poured, and turned. He wasn't dead yet.

Loki took the glass and leaned against the back of the nearest sofa.

“So. Any particular reason you're in my home? Again, I might add? You are so lucky Pepper has a board meeting today because she is not a fan of gatecrashers. Particularly when said gatecrashers are wanted intergalactic criminals who destroyed most of New York. And her home. And are supposed to be dead. I'm still not over that part. Why are you not dead?”

“It did not stick.” The slightest bit of a smirk.

“I've got some experience with that. Good for you.” He raised his glass in a mock toast. “Maybe not for the rest of us,” he mumbled.

“I heard that.”

Tony grinned. Crossing his arms across his chest, glass still in one hand, he leaned back against the sideboard, mimicking Loki's pose.

“Next question: where have you been?”

“Here are there. Mostly there.”

“Well, you are just full of useful information, aren't you?” Tony glared at Loki. Loki calmly returned his gaze. Tony sipped his drink. Loki liked to hear himself talk even more than he did. He would just wait. He took another sip.

“Ok, but seriously, what the hell are you doing here?”

Loki just arched the other eyebrow and vanished. Tony finished the last of his drink.

“FRIDAY, did that really just happen? Do I need to call SHIELD, or a shrink? Because I'm not calling a shrink. And Bruce isn't around right now. He was shit at it anyway.”

“Sir, readings indicate that Loki was in fact here.”

“Ok. Good. That's good.”

He picked up Loki's glass from where it was perched on the back of the sofa, but he didn't call anyone.

 

***

 

The next time Loki appeared in his home uninvited, Tony was proud that he only flinched a little.

“All right, this time you owe me an explanation. Because, otherwise, this is just rude.”

Loki looked at him expectantly.

“Just answer the question.”

“Which one? You asked quite a few, by my recollection.”

“Why are you here?”

“I find myself without any pressing responsibilities at the moment, and I enjoyed our earlier visit. Midgardian liquor is not as dreadful as I remembered it to be.”

Taking the hint, Tony poured two glasses and gestured toward the couches. Loki perched on one. Tony relaxed into another opposite him.

“So why are you not dead?”

“What has Thor told you of what happened?”

“He said that Asgard was attached by...” He sighed. “Elves, apparently. They wanted his lady friend, Dr Foster, who had some kind of magic in her. They didn't get her, but his...your...mother was killed.” Loki was staring at him very intently. “Sorry. You know. For your loss.” Loki's jaw clenched, but he nodded, almost imperceptibly, in acknowledgment. Tony thanked his lucky stars he hadn't just been disemboweled. “Thor said daddy wanted to fortify his defenses and wait, but that he thought it would be best to take the fight to the elves. He sprang you from prison because you could get them there without alerting the authorities. You succeeded in saving the day, as evidenced by the fact,” he gestured around the room and up toward the sky, “that the universe still exists. But they trashed a chunk of Jolly Olde England, and you were killed. He said you protected Jane, and that you killed the guys who killed your mother, and that you died. Other than that he was a bit vague on the details.”

“That is what I imagined he would have said. What he failed to mention is that when Thor asked for my help and released me from prison into his custody, he promised me that if I was very, very good, I could have my vengeance and then look forward to returning and spending the rest of my days there. I was able to achieve the first, but I had no intention of doing the latter. I ran that monster through, but in my anger, I miscalculated. Before he collapsed, he took hold of me and clasped me to his chest, impaling me on the same blade I had driven through his chest. I could not escape him in time, but I altered the weapon, removing much of the blade and replacing it with an image of itself. I was not as accurate as I would have preferred, given the limited time, and I was injured, but not as grievously as I would have been, or as it appeared. The real injuries added a certain believability.” He smirked. “Believing me dead, Thor abandoned me on Svartalfheim and left to 'trash a chunk of Jolly Olde England.' I was free.”

“Playing possum. Good one.”

“You are a strange one, Stark.”

“You like me that way and you know it.”

Loki smirked, but he didn't deny it.

“So where have you been? Traveling? Getting some R and R? Catching up on your reading?”

“Ruling Asgard.”

Whatever Tony had been expecting, it hadn't been that. “Funny, Thor didn't mention that.”

“I returned to Asgard in disguise. Had a little chat with Odin, and remained on Asgard. In disguise.”

“And dear old dad?”

“He is not my father, but he is well enough. In the Odinsleep, and kept safely imprisoned where no one will think to look for him because they do not know to look. As I was locked away to be forgotten, now he shall be.”

Tony took a few more sips of his drink, digesting all this. He didn't know the whole story about Thor and Loki's fucked up family issues, and what he did know was either based on circumstantial evidence gleaned from SHIELD reports he wasn’t supposed to have seen, or had been learned from Thor, who, while well-intentioned, was understandably biased. It was pretty clear that a great deal of Loki's crazy came from his truly impressive daddy issues. And Loki had gone and supplanted Odin. Was pretending to be him. Either he had gotten the closure he needed, or he had made things much worse.

“So how's that going? I mean, a lot of people wanted me to be my father, but it was pretty obvious to everyone that I wasn't. But you've been literally filling his shoes. That's gotta be weird. Please tell me you haven't been wearing his shoes.”

“No need.” There was a wash of green light and Steve sat on the couch across from Tony. He grinned a very not-Steve grin. “I quit.” Another wash of green and Loki was back. Thankfully. That had been weird.

“You quit?”

“I had sought to be prove myself worthy to Odin. Then I sought to overthrow him. But as you said, I did not wish to be him. So I left.”

“And you came here? Seriously, why are you here?  Why are you talking to me?”

Loki didn't deign to answer that one, just raised his eyebrows a bit and stretched his mouth into a grin that was edging toward his old bag-of-cats look.

“Fine, fine. Didn't really expect an answer to that one. Just as long as you're not planning on defenestrating me again. Because it seems like we've got a good thing going right now, but last time I thought that you tried to kill me.”

“If I truly wanted you dead, Stark, do you think I would be sitting here talking to you?”

“Touché. But I've noticed your plans tend to be...complex. I wouldn't be surprised if you had something up your sleeve. Or five things. Possibly eleven.”

“Do you want to see what I have under here?” Loki deadpanned. Not a smirk, or a leer, or a raised eyebrow. But setting down his glass on the coffee table, he deftly, deliberately rolled one sleeve, then the other, up to his elbows, revealing slim forearms. They looked breakable, and like they were made of steel. It was a strange move. It was oddly intimate. Thor's armor was sleeveless, leaving bare, bulging muscle unprotected, declaring his strength through his disdain for proper protection. The rest of the time it was all jeans and faded t-shirts. But Loki's armor had encased him completely, all wide shoulder covers and interwoven layers of fabric, hiding him and making him larger than life at the same time. Tony’s image of him from New York was almost synonymous with his armor, and now he struggled to process this new vision of the person beneath the armor. Loki casual wear was something he couldn't imagine. He almost laughed, but caught himself just in time. Wouldn't be a good idea to laugh at the crazy guy's weird come-on. And it was weird. A show of vulnerability from someone who never showed any. As if he was baring his neck, when really he was revealing almost nothing.

“I'm sure you have plenty of other places to hide things besides just you sleeves.”

“Good guess.” Loki held his eyes just a bit too long before breaking the contact and looking down at his empty glass.  
“Help yourself.” Tony nodded toward the bar. Loki stood and sauntered toward the bar. Tony held up his glass as he went by, and Loki took it without a word, set both glasses down, and smoothly refilled them, Tony with the same drink as before, and his own with the best scotch.

“Bastard.” Tony reached out his hand again to snag his drink as Loki returned to his seat. He sank in further than before, leaning back, legs spread.

They sat in silence for a few moments, sipping, waiting for the other to make a move.

Tony was not at all surprised that he was the first to break the silence.

“Bet you've been wondering how we've been getting on down here since you left. Without your benevolent rule.”

“Who said it would have been benevolent?”

“Exactly. And, since you asked, things have been awesome. Let's see, what have you missed? You and Thor went back to Oz and things here went pretty much back to normal for a bit. Well, New York was kind of trashed, so that took a while to put back together. I had to renovate the whole penthouse of the Tower after the mess you made out of it. I really, really wanted to leave the you-shaped hole in the floor, just fix everything around it, cover it with glass, integrate it into the floor, like a monument to your humiliation. But Pepper said that I was morbid, and she didn't want to be reminded of all that awfulness any more than she had to be. Guess she had a point. But still, it was a cool idea. Anyway, rebuilt the Tower as a base of operations for the Avengers, but everyone went their separate ways for a while. Bruce hung around sciencing, but the agents went back to SHIELD and took Cap with them, and SHIELD continued to be the shady government organization that wanted to use the Tesseract to make superweapons, so Pepper and I came here for a while. That was nice.”

He sighed and took a big sip. “Then some guy I'd pissed off ages ago created a fake terrorist leader as a cover for his evil scheme. Pepper got superpowers, Rhodey saved the president, and I had a mid-life crisis and blew up all my suits. Then I rebuilt my home, again, because the asshole had blown this place to smithereens.”

Tony took another sip and looked at his audience, but Loki was still sitting, slouched back in his chair, apparently listening politely.  
So then, one day I'm installing the anti-missile defense system here, and I hear that Cap went and blew up SHIELD.”

Loki's eyes widened. “Whatever could have caused him to do that?”

“Yeah it seems out favorite shady government agency was secretly being run by Nazis. Seriously, Nazis. And not just regular Nazis, but the extra-bad Nazis that freaked out the regular Nazis with their evilness, and that apparently survived the last seventy years like some kind of malevolent, overly meticulous cockroaches. So Cap blew up their toys, and Natasha dumped all their secrets on the Internet.”

“The spider revealed her secrets? Well, I did tell her she was working for liars and killers. If only she had believed me.”

“Well, she was busy fooling you into giving away your evil plot. That was awesome, by the way. Guess she figured you were just as full of crap about that as about the rest of it. Pissing off Natasha is not a good idea, as you know. And if we're keeping score, Cap blew up three helicarriers, which is infinitely more than the none you did. I take no credit for the destruction of this particular Stark family legacy.”

“Your father founded SHIELD, did he not?”

“Yep. Dad made Cap. Dad made SHIELD. Cap destroyed SHIELD. I watched it on TV. And laughed at the irony.”

“You wanted no part in this part of the legacy?”

“No, I wanted something different, better. Dad and I agree that the world needs protecting, but we don't see eye to eye on how to do that. Howard always wanted to make the newest, biggest weapon, and then make sure we have it and no one else does. Not the Nazis, the Commies, the space aliens...SHIELD kept that up. Now Hydra, they were thinking outside the box, trying to identify the treat before it happened. Unfortunately, they had a somewhat different idea of what constituted a threat than I do, and they wanted to solve their problems by blasting anyone they didn't like—like me, and my friends—with lasers from the sky, so....they had to go. Good riddance.

“SHIELD was decent at the whole protecting the world thing. With them gone, we were vulnerable. But we also had the chance to turn the Avengers into something different, something better. We went independent. For a while, things were good. We did some good.”

Loki was looking at him sharply, but thankfully he didn't comment on the sudden, surprising detour into near-maudlin territory.

“The Avengers, we were pretty awesome—we kicked your ass.” He wagged his eyebrows, got a threatening narrowing of the eyes in return. “But there was only the six of us, and it was obvious that one day we would lose. There had to be a better way, a way to make sure that wouldn't happen. And then one day we're cleaning out a Hydra base and we find your old glowstick of destiny.” Loki's face is a mask, only the slightest twitch acknowledging that he even knows what Tony is talking about. “You were holding out on us. A little poking and we realize the glowy bit is an artificial intelligence, better than any we had. We could use it to solve, well, everything. Anticipate every threat, know how to solve every problem. But we should have realized that were couldn't trust anything you were associated with. The stone took a half-finished program and some damaged Iron Legion units and turned into an army of killer robots convinced the best way to save humanity was to destroy it. A bunch of stuff happened. The Eurotrash twins. My old AI turned into this weird, but kind cool, flying purple guy. The evil robots tried to cause an extinction event by picking up and then dropping an entire small European country. World's still in one piece. For now, anyway. Cap and Natasha are whipping the new batch of Avengers into shape and I'm here. Regrouping, I suppose. Deciding what comes next.”

“And how is that going?” Loki asked mildly.

Tony shrugged. “Not bad. I've been working on the cars, working on some projects for Pepper. Working on my tan.”

Loki looked distinctly unimpressed by this answer. He stood and sauntered back to the bar, picked up the bottle, and brought it back to the seating area, He filled both glasses and placed the bottle on the table with a solid thud.

Cradling his glass in his hand, he sat on the edge of the seat, legs wide, elbows on knees, eyes bright. “When Thor was banished to Midgard and the All-Father fell into the Odin-sleep, it fell to me to rule Asgard.” Oh, this was interesting. Tony had heard this story before, of course, from Thor. But he had a feeling this version was going to be very different.

“Asgard and Jotunheim, the land of the Frost Giants, have been enemies for nearly as long as anyone can remember. The last time there was a war between the two realms, Midgard was nearly destroyed. Since then, a tenuous peace had existed between the realms. Now they stood on the brink of war, as a result of Thor’s actions and, if we are being honest here--” Loki let out a short laugh, acknowledging the irony of someone nicknamed Silvertongue claiming to be honest. “--my own as well. Thor had courted war, Odin had sought peace, but neither was in a position to do anything for Asgard. That fell to me. So I did neither. Or both. As long as the Frost Giants remained on Jotunheim, Asgard would always be under threat. The only way to achieve lasting peace was to be rid of Jotunheim. I resolved to destroy it. Thor revels in fighting and in killed, yet he claimed to be horrified by my actions. I was doing only what he would have, just more efficiently, less messily. As if somehow the death of every single Jotun, individually, by the blade, would be acceptable, but all their deaths, cleanly, and at once, was worse. And Odin, he wanted peace, and the protection of Asgardian lives, but when I found the perfect solution to achieve lasting peace without the loss of a single Asgardian life, he could not stomach it. And so they stopped me, and threw me into the abyss.”

Loki's hand tightened around his glass and his eyes were boring holes into Tony. Tony stared back as calmly as he could. Just when he was beginning to wonder whether Loki would blink or the glass would crack first, Loki let out a huff of air and threw himself back in the chair, somehow managing not to spill his drink. “We're not so different, you and I.”

“Interesting theory you have there. How do you figure that? Last time I checked, I wasn't guilty of attempted genocide.”

“We both sought to defend the people in our care using...unconventional methods. Methods for which those same people condemned us. Although it may not have been your intention, your creation reached a solution that does bear some similarity to my own. Peace through destruction.”

“Ok, I've been through this approximately a million times with every authority on the planet, but I'm not taking responsibility for Ultron's actions. I'll agree that he Ultron probably wouldn't have existed if Bruce and I had left your glowstick well enough alone, but we were building a benevolent AI and we didn't succeed. After that, your crazy stone turned it into the nightmare we got. The way I figure it, Ultron and his 'Kill all humans' MO is at least 50% your fault.”

“You are giving me too much credit.”

“And you are being way too modest.” Tony paused and narrowed his eyes at Loki. “Wait. You're never modest. Do you mean to say you're somehow not responsible for that thing?”

Loki smirked. “Finally. I was led to believe you were brilliant, but it took you long enough. I disappeared into the darkest realms of space and re-emerged on Midgard with an army. An army of creatures none on Asgard, Midgard, or any other realm had ever encountered or heard of, creatures reliant on a leader. And I was in possession of a device capable of controlling the will of others. Yet none questioned how this arrangement came about. Who I might have encountered in the abyss. Who might have given me my army and the means to control it. Who might be...displeased...not to have received the Tesseract in return. You are right to fear for the safety of your realm. There are much worse things out there than I.”

“Oh, good. Nothing like having my worst fears confirmed. Why are you telling me this? And can you tell me more?”

“The one who gave me the Mind Stone, that I might conquer your world and secure for him the Space Stone, is more powerful than anyone or anything you can imagine. For now, he acts through intermediaries such as myself, and his attention is turned elsewhere. There are six stones he seeks to acquire, and he will not forget that one of them is here on Midgard. All of existence is threatened if he should succeed. I bear little love for this realm, but as I am a part of this existence, self-preservation alone dictates that I do what I can to keep the stones from Thanos. And loathe as I am to admit it, you and your companions are the best this world has to offer in the way of defense. So, consider yourself warned.”

“Thanos, you said? Who is he? What's he up to? He wants these stones, including the Tesseract and the one the Vision has? What happens if he gets them?”

“He is a Titan, one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and even among them he is particularly old and stubborn. He seeks the Infinity Stones—powerful, ancient objects, of which the Mind Stone and Space Stone are two. If he possesses all six, he will become essentially omnipotent. Achieve whatever he wants. And what he wants is Death.”

“Well, that sound horrible.”

“He does not agree.”

“Yeah, I got that. He wants death? Just...lots of it, and in general?”

“Yes, as much as death as possible. He is ancient, and essentially invincible. Immortal to a degree that makes the Asgardians' claims of immortality laughable in comparison. For all his might and power, death is the one thing he cannot have, and so it is the one thing he desires. He believes Death is a woman, one he can court, whose love he can buy if he can only send her enough souls. With the Infinity Stones, he will be able send them to her on a scale unprecedented in the entire miserable, bloody history of the universe. Already he is responsible for the deaths of trillions.”

“He must get up very early in the morning,” Tony mumbled. “Death, death, death, death, death, lunch, death, death, afternoon tea, death, death, quick shower....”

Loki was looking at him like he had started speaking in tongues.

“Never mind. Eddie Izzard. I’ll show you some time. So, he sounds like a bad deal. How'd you hook up with him, anyway?”

“Hook up?” Loki sighed. “You are an infuriating mortal. What a horrifying image.” He shifted in his seat. Sat forward, topped up his glass, sat back again. “When I fell from the Bifrost, I fell for a long time. Or what seemed like a long time. I don't know that there is truly a difference. Eventually, I stopped falling. I found myself in lands unknown to Asgard or any of the nine realms. I wandered. Encountered lands visit by Thanos. Lands devastated. Destroyed. In my weakness I sought someone strong. In my anger I sought someone who could make those I hated suffer. I circled Thanos, and he….” Loki turned slightly paler, looked quickly off to the side before regaining his composure. “He granted me an audience, proposed an alliance. He had ideas about how he could best use more, but I made an offer: if he would provide me with the means to do so, I would retrieve the Tesseract for him, in return for dominion over your world.”

“He provided the scepter and the Chitauri, and you showed up on our doorstop, lost the scepter, and didn't get him the Tesseract. Man, he must be pissed.”

“Yes, I imagine so. I have no intention of finding out. I am, rather conveniently, dead.”

“And you have no more interest in 'dominion over this world'?”

“I never truly did. I wanted what Thor had. And if I could not have rule over Asgard, I would take the Earth instead. I had little idea what I would do with it once I had it. You are an irritating people. I doubt I would have much enjoyed ruling this world. Ruling is, as I have learned, a very tedious affair.”

“I am very happy about your lack of attention span.”

“I assure you, your opinion on that matter has nothing to do with it.”

“No, of course not. So, the plan now is to drop some disturbing warning and then, what? Take an extended vacation?”

“What makes you think I have any intention of telling you?”

“Because I asked nicely?”

“You did not.”

“Fair.”

The conversation faded, and they sat in silence for a few moments. Not companionable, exactly, but not hostile. Lost in thought.

“Thanks, by the way. For the warning. I would’ve expected to feel more vindicated by confirmation that the world's in as much danger as I feared, but....no, not really.” He glanced over at Loki, who just nodded slightly. “Shit, we are so not ready for this kind of thing. Everyone’s still upset about my last great plan to save the world, arguing about how superheroes are dangerous, blah blah blah. The Avengers won’t be enough, but without them we’re even more screwed. But if they’re spending all their time testifying and negotiating and defending themselves there won’t be any time to protect anyone else. And we need more, so much more. We can’t expect to just pull it off again and again and again. Because eventually we’ll fail. There has to be a better way.” He faded out, swirling the last drops of the drink in his hand, lips moving as he continued to work on the problem.

“No way are you skipping out. The Tesseract was on Asgard, so either it’s still there and you need to do something about it, or you already have. And you must know where at least some of the other stones or whatever are. No way you aren’t already up to something. You’ve been up to something the entire time you’ve been in Asgard, or even before that. Your schemes have schemes. You can’t leave well enough and you know it. You know how I know? Because I know I couldn’t. That’s probably why you told me in the first place. You knew I’d be too curious not to at least try to verify your story. Like you said, we’re not so different.”

Tony looked up, expecting a rebuttal, but Loki was gone.


End file.
